Philip Tolefree

Created by R.A.J. Walling
(1869-1949)

Veddy urbane, veddy polished, veddy British, PHILIP TOLEFREE is an insurance broker and “private inquiry agent” who never gets his hands, or his gumshoes, dirty, in twenty-two or so Golden Age mysteries.

Instead of going down London’s mean streets as any self-respecting eye would, Philip and his mate Farrar wander the stately manors and country houses of the rich, investigating seemingly impossible crimes, his early stories narrated by his Watson-like friend James Farrar, who is booted from the series at some point, only to reappear in later books.

Tolefree has another friend as well, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Pierce, who pops up in many of the novels, mostly as a friendly, if reluctant rival.

Competent and even clever at times, with some genuinely definitely twisty solutions, but not my cup of tea.

So why did I even bother listing this stiff? From most accounts, this guy Tolefree’s a twit.

I have definitely got to get a life…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Alfred John Walling was an English journalist and the author of numerous detective novels under the name “R. A. J. Walling”. According to  Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, “R. A. J. Walling’s place in detective fiction is that of a competent practitioner of the British Golden Age novel.”

UNDER OATH

• “… slow paced and discursive but nevertheless it is an interesting read with a clever twist regarding the motivation for the crime and some excellent characterisation, which subtly shows that few people are all good or totally depraved. I would recommend this as an interesting and enjoyable read for anybody who enjoys exploring the lesser remembered crime fiction of the period revered as the Golden Age of Crime Fiction.”
  —Carol Westron (June 2023, Promoting Detective Fiction)

NOVELS

• Fatal Five Minutes (1932) | Buy this book
• Follow the Blue Car (1933)
• The Tolliver Case (1934)
• VIII to IX ( 1934)
• The Cat and the Corpse (1935)
• The Five Suspects (1935)
• The Corpse in the Crimson Slippers (1936)
• The Corpse with the Dirty Face (1936)
• Mr. Tolefree’s Reluctant Witnesses (1936)
• Bury Him Deeper (1937)
• The Mystery of Mr. Mock (1937)
• The Coroner Doubts (1938)
• More Than One Serpent (1938)
• Dust in the Vault (1939)
• They Liked Entwhistle (1939)
• Why Did Trethewy Die? (1940)
• By Hook or by Crook (1941)
• Castle-Dinas (1942)
• The Doodled Asterisk ( 1943)
• The Corpse Without a Clue ( 1944)
• The Late Unlamented (1948)
• The Corpse with the Missing Watch (1949)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.